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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Flip’d by IHOP on Front Burner

Glendale restaurant operator Dine Brands Global Inc. announced last month a new fast-casual concept called Flip’d by IHOP, slated to launch in the spring of 2020. Flip’d is, of course, an offshoot of IHOP and will offer similar breakfast items to the sit-down chain in a faster and more portable format. It will sell pancake bowls and egg sandwiches tailored for a working or on-the-go consumer. “Breakfast remains one of the only growth opportunities in dining, but no one is doing a fast-casual all-day breakfast concept (at scale) that puts the food front and center,” IHOP President Jay Johns told the Business Journal via email. The first Flip’d location is planned to open in Atlanta in April, with additional sites in New York City, Denver, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. in the works. “We’re primarily focused on building Flip’d by IHOP restaurants in dense city centers where there’s heavy foot traffic and people are looking for speed and convenience in addition to freshness,” Johns said. “Los Angeles is definitely on our radar.” He added Flip’d will solve a lot of challenges franchisees face when it comes to building in big cities. “Since Flip’d is roughly half the size of a traditional IHOP, it opens up more real estate options and scales back on labor needs as there’s no table service,” Johns said. That also means to-go orders, delivery and catering will be a big part of the business. New restaurant development seems a core focus for Dine Brands, especially in its management of IHOP. In October, the company signed its biggest franchise development deal ever to put 94 IHOP locations in TA- and Petro-branded travel stops along interstate freeways over the next five years. And throughout 2019, it signed several contracts that will see a combined 76 IHOP restaurants built over the next few years in foreign markets, particularly Canada, Latin America and the Middle East. “All of our research tells us that IHOP is in high demand,” Johns said. “Flip’d is one of many ways we’re going about bringing more IHOP to more people.”

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